Arashi ni Koi
by JC.Asia
Summary: Jen was separated from her childhood friend. Years later he meets a guy who acts and talks like him and he even has the same name. As they become closer, she finds that he really is like him. Could it be him? but isn't he dead? ft. Yamapi, Aiba & Jin


嵐に恋

ジエン

**Broken Promises**

In a small suburban area, a little girl slowly walked towards the square sandpit located on her backyard, which her father had painstakingly built for her, holding a bucket on one hand and a small plastic spade on the other. She was about the age of six and had long black flowing hair which reached mid-way down her back. Her dress, covered with floral patterns, blew with the cool breeze of autumn as she walked. She took small strides until she reached the wooden edge where she took off her sandals and jumped into the cold grainy sand where she sat down. She patted and gathered several handfuls of sand in front of her, diligently moulding the small uneven hill into the faint shape of a castle, until she felt a pair of cold hands gently touch her shoulders.

"What are you making?" a familiar voice asked. She turned around, coming face to face with a young boy wearing a loose yellow shirt. His face was randomly dotted with spots of dirt and his deep brown eyes slightly hidden behind his rich scruffy black hair. A smile clearly plastered itself onto his face as he saw her.

"A castle…" she replied, "Do you want to make one too?"

"Nah… too dirty"

"But your already dirty" she stated, pointing towards his mud-stained shirt and pants for evidence.

"Yeah… but I want to run around. I know! Want to play hide and seek instead?"

"Fine but I get to hide first, go behind that tree and count to 20" she ordered, pointing towards an apricot tree near the corner of the wooden fence. He nodded, running towards it and eager to start the game. As soon as she saw him lean against the tree and cover his eyes with his hands, she quickly slipped on her sandals and ran towards the inside of the house, opening the sliding door as quietly as possible so he won't hear.

"…7, 8, 9" she heard him count as she hurriedly tried to think of a place to hide. Running out of time, she crept to her parent's room, hid in their closet amongst their clothes, and kept silent. Suddenly the door creaked open and was shortly followed by heavy footsteps. Thinking it was him, she curled her legs towards her stomach and glued her hands to her mouth to keep from laughing.

"Should I say yes to him or not?" asked a feminine voice. Surprised by the unexpected sound, the little girl curiously peeked, holding her breath, through the tiny gap between the closet doors and saw her mom with her older cousin, Kate.

"Do you love him?" her mother asked in a serious questioning tone.

"Yes"

"Then what's the problem? If you love him, then say yes."

"It's not that easy."

"Why not?"

"Because I'm still in college and I still have lots of stuff I want to do. My mind can't even process the fact that he wants to get married. "

"Do those other things really matter to you?"

"Yes they do, auntie, but on the other hand, I really love him and I don't want to lose him over something like this."

"If your heart says 'yes', then just marry him. Marriage won't eat you and if he's the right person for you, it certainly won't destroy your life. It will actually do the opposite and if you let it, it will open up new doors and possibilities for the both of you. In the end..." the mom continued to explain but was interrupted by the ring of her cell phone.

She grabbed it from inside her jacket pocket and stared at the caller ID. "It's my boss, sorry I have to take this call but think over it carefully. Do what you think is right for you. Remember, don't be afraid to say 'no' because if he really is the one made for you, he will understand and wait until the time you are ready." she meaningfully explained, staring into the younger girl's eyes as she opened the door and exited.

As the door lightly closed, Kate dejectedly threw herself, face down, onto the bed and took several deep sighs against the softness of the quilt. Just then, the little girl lost balance and toppled forward onto the floor, landing with a big thud on her stomach, revealing herself to the older girl.

"WA!" lightly exclaimed a bewildered Kate, jumping into a sitting position at the unexpected guest. "What are you doing?!"

"I'm playing hide and seek with Tomo" she started to explain, rubbing her head with an innocent smile appearing on her face, "and I needed a place to hide"

Kate relaxed and fell onto the bed once again, taking another deep sigh.

"You know what…" Kate started

"What?"

"I'm so jealous of you. I wish I was your age again."

"Why?" the little girl puzzled, tilting her head to one side, "Is it because you want to crawl into tiny places where old people like you can't fit?"

Kate lightly snickered at the suggestion and sat up again to stare into her innocent, untainted eyes. "I'm jealous because you're so lucky that you don't have to worry about things like marriage." Just then loud footsteps patrolled the other side of the wall and within seconds, the door suddenly burst open, revealing and overly excited boy.

"Found you!" he yelled in a loud manner.

She turned and stared at him for a while, her lips slightly twitching into a small smile as she plotted something. Unexpectedly, the girl suddenly rushed towards him, lightly tapped his left shoulder and said "It's not over yet. You'll have to catch me first!"

Once again she ran towards the back yard with the boy closely trailing her from behind. When they reached the sandpit, with both their feet touching the sand whilst heavily panting for air, they stood silently for a moment, trying to catch their breath, until she broke the silence by curiously asking "What's marriage?"

"I don't really know" he replied.

"Is it something you eat?"

"I don't think so. I've never heard of anyone eating a marriage."

"Well my cousin doesn't seem to like it and my mom said something about eating it"

"I've heard my parents talking about it too. I think its something two people do so that they can stay together forever"

"Like when you shake milk?"

"Huh?" he asked, dumbfounded.

"When you shake milk it becomes a milk shake. Shaking it brings milk and shake together."

"That's weird" he teased, playfully punching the side of her arm, "If that's true, then how do you make banana milk shake?"

"That's easy…" she sighed, "you put the banana in the milk and shake them together. Everybody knows that!" She was suddenly silent for a short moment, appearing to be in thought, until she eventually questioned, "will we be like that one day?"

"I don't think we'll ever become milkshakes"

"No! The marriage thing"

"Oh! Of course, we're friends. It's only natural if we stay together" he mused, smiling at her, and as he said this his face suddenly lit up as he remembered something. His right hand reached towards his back pants pocket and took out a small, well laced necklace.

"This is for you" he said, grabbing her hand and dropping the necklace down onto it. Amazed, she gently held it up by the thin blue lace as she stared at the figurine it held. It was a small delicately carved wooden bird with a 'J' engraved on the side of one of the wings. "My dad helped me make that for you"

"Wow, thank you" she said, giving him a warm smile as she leaned towards him, kissing his cheek. "You're the best."

He blushed at her comment and stayed silent for a while until he recovered himself.

"Do you really think that we'll be together in the future?"

"I don't know but I would be sad if we weren't." she replied, her lips slightly inching downwards at the thought.

The little boy noticed this and tried to lighten the mood, a large grin appearing on his face. "Then don't be sad because I promise that we will." he stated proudly, taking her hands in his as they playfully ran around the yard.

_In this world, there is only one person especially designed by destiny to be with us but no matter how hard we try, we can't choose that person because love doesn't choose, it just happens._

**2 months later**

"Mommy! I need to tell you something." said a little girl whilst making several short towers with her toy blocks.

"What is it honey?" her mother asked curiously, squatting down to help her build her towers.

"Yesterday when I was playing tag with Tomo, daddy walked past us and Tomo said he had a cowlick" she paused, deeply thinking about what she was about to say.

"hmm… what about it?"

"How can daddy have a cowlick when I never saw him lick a cow?" she rambled, "Does daddy like licking cows?"

Her mother burst into laughter, harshly biting her lower lip to stop from laughing at her daughter's ridiculous comment. "I'm pretty sure that daddy doesn't lick cows"

"Are you sure?"

"Yes…I'm pretty sure"

"Tomo also said that he likes banana splits but I've tried to do the splits at school and it hurts… so I fought with him and told him not to do it anymore because it hurts the banana!" she explained, "and when we were at the milk bar, he wanted to buy lollies so he asked me for a buck and I hit him with my head then he complained!"

"You hit him… with your head?" her mother asked questioningly.

"Yes, of course. He asked me for a buck so I gave it to him."

"Honey, when Tomo said 'buck' he meant money"

"It didn't sound like that to me. If he wanted money, he could've just said so!"

"Anyway, baby, we have something to tell you" said the mother to her daughter, who immediately dropped the toy block that she was holding.

"Yes" the little girl answered, staring into her mother's eyes. Just then, her father entered the room and leaned against the doorway, seeming like he wanted to say something.

"Mommy has a job promotion and we're moving houses" he explained.

"Don't you like this old house?"

"It's not that, honey. We're moving houses to another part of the country."

"I don't want to carry this house that far. This house is really, really heavy!"

"No, that's not it" her father sighed, "We're moving to a new house"

"Will I still get to see Tomo and my other friends?"

"Sorry, you won't see them where we're going but you'll make lots of new friends there"

The little girl fell silent for a while and tried to comprehend what her parents had just said. Then finally she spoke, "If I don't get to see Tomo, then I don't want to go."

"Honey, we have no choice. We're moving tomorrow" her mother said.

"Is it because I'm bad?"

"No, baby, your not bad" her father comforted.

"I promise never to write on the walls ever again" she pleaded, "I only did that because Tomo said it was wallpaper!"

"Honey, you need to understand that we're moving tomorrow. There's nothing any one of us can do because we've already sold this house to someone else."

"Then buy it back!" she complained.

"Baby…" her father sighed deeply, "we can't buy it back. It's too late now."

Eventually tears started to well up in her eyes as she started to finally understand that she couldn't do anything to stop it; starting from tomorrow, she won't ever see her friends who she cares for, especially Tomo. Her mother started to reach out a hand towards her but was suddenly interrupted by the echoing sound of the doorbell. Her father sighed and heavily walked towards the door, opening it to reveal a little boy.

"Can your daughter come out and play?" he politely asked, his eyes scanning the room for her. Her head perked up at the sound of his voice, her eyes immediately darting towards the door and as soon as she saw him even more tears formed and fell straight to the well furnished wooden floorboards of their soon to be ex-house. Without a thought, her body automatically reacted and she hurriedly stood up and ran to his side.

"Horrible … news" she sniffed, tears slowly rolling down her cheeks.

"What's wrong?" he asked, concerned about her.

"We're moving houses tomorrow"

"Wow! We get to play at a new house? Where is it?"

"No… that's not it. When we move, we won't ever see each other again because we're moving to a totally different place."

He fell silent and thought to himself for a moment but his usual goofy smile eventually reappeared on his face. "Don't worry. We'll play more than ever today and I promise to write to you everyday, so you won't miss out on anything" he calmly promised, gently wrapping his hands around her, "don't cry because I'll always be here for you."

_There are also people in this world who try to hurt us in every possible way but no one can hurt us more than that one special person, specially made for us. Broken promises from that one person can leave us with empty feelings for a long time._

After 11 years have passed, the little boy never wrote, called or saw the little girl again; years of promises can be broken within the short time span of a minute or even a second.

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(Note:First Fanfic~please comment ^.^)


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